A Victorian country pub has struck gold – selling naming rights to its … everything.
Telling the kind of kitsch situational comedy that sometimes captures the fickle attentions of “The Internet” the Tatura Hotel has launched a campaign to “shamelessly name parts of [the] pub” for a contribution to its renovation fund.
Fronted by publican, natural born character and by all accounts the life-blood of the town of Tatura, population 3,500, Peter ‘Bugs’ Ryan has been overwhelmed with the response through the Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign.
“It’s certainly been bigger than we anticipated,” Bugs told PubTIC.
“I went on the Today show on Saturday morning, and they’ve started a campaign called ‘nominate your favourite pub’ – so hopefully other pubs will benefit, too.”
Bugs says the idea started when his nephew, who is part-owner and works in a Melbourne advertising agency, said they had some ideas about crowd funding.
“It grew from there. Next thing I knew I had a script and a camera in front of me,” continues Bugs – whose natural character has obviously played a big part in the success of the campaign.
To date there have been at least 17 published stories in Australia, plus the Ryans report having done nineteen interviews thus far, including three from London, and hitting the news in Montreal, Poland and the Netherlands as well as Australian radio and the Channel Nine breakfast show.
And just five days into the 40-day promotion to raise $64,000, over $25,000 has already been secured through the purchase of some of the items on offer – such as:
- Coopers Brewery’s purchase of one of the oil paintings for $2000 (one of eight)
- Bar stools (30 at $100 each – sold out)
- The pool table ($700)
- The Chicken Parma ($1,000 – only 1 on offer)
- The Front Bar ($2,000)
- The men’s urinal*
Bugs says, to his surprise, 60 per cent of the stuff was bought by overseas bidders. And he thinks once they begin screwing name plaques onto items and posting selfies beside them, “the novelty will grow” even more.
Still up for grabs are the “Weekend (drinking) with Bugs” for $2,500 – only eight available. (Although rumour has it the man would be willing to do more.)
“He’s really like that. The Bugs you see on the video is the real him,” says Sue, wife and level head in the Tatura operation.
“The response has been fantastic. We’ll see where it goes from here.”
*Bought by MMM radio, and soon to feature the face of former AFL footballer Billy Brownless.
